Psychological science can benefit from qualitative research because qualitative research methods are suitable for studying experiences of social phenomena like ‘mental disorders’. Despite the increase in recognition, researchers using qualitative research methods in mental health care face multiple challenges. We studied this contradiction in practice by qualitatively interviewing 10 qualitative researchers, and analyzing these by reflexive thematic analysis. Overall, although the interviewed qualitative researchers have faced persistent misconceptions and stigmatization of qualitative research, they remain fairly motivated in contributing to a more inclusive psychological science. Moreover, all of them experienced more awareness about the benefits of qualitative methods among peers, resulting in qualitative methods being more and more institutionalized. However, some reported that psychology as a discipline is still lagging behind other disciplines in conducting and teaching qualitative research methods.